DESCRIPTION: Cancer is a multi-disciplinary disease which requires a broad, integrated knowledge base and skills in communicating with patients and colleagues. The overall objective of this project is to develop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate a coordinated, four-year, multi-disciplinary medical school curriculum on cancer and its prevention through a collaborative effort among UCLA School of Medicine, University of Southern California School of Medicine, C. R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, and UC Riverside, Biomedical Sciences Program. Specific aims are: (1) to build a consortium for cancer education among medical and public health programs in the Los Angeles area, (2) to develop a four-year, integrated plan for cancer education based on specified list of competencies, (3) to produce problem-based learning multimedia materials for prototypical cases and public health programs, (4) to integrate the cases into existing courses and clerkships at the collaborating institutions, (5) to develop a software tool for student use in managing their growing knowledge base about cancer, and (6) to evaluate the effect of a longitudinal, problem-based learning approach to cancer education. The project will be accomplished in three phases. First, participating institutions will convene a Cancer Consensus Panel to review current cancer education recommendations, produce a list of competencies for graduating medical students, and identify 20 prototypical clinical cases or public health problems to be used to teach these competencies. Second, a UCLA curriculum development team will develop and produce the recommended cases for use in a variety of problem-based learning formats using the expertise of the Consensus Panel. The UCLA Cancer Education Curriculum Committee, consisting of directors of courses and clerkships will review the problems and plan for coordinated implementation across the entire medical school curriculum. A longitudinal cancer curriculum will be implemented and evaluated at UCLA and the other institutions in the consortium. The problem-based learning materials will be available for reproduction cost to other health professions educational programs.